OWSA News

Our biggest local event of the summer is this weekend! Kicking off with BBT #5 Dottie T. Memorial on Friday, followed by the Ohio State Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Please see below for a complete checklist to make your weekend AWESOME!

Get in those last couple of practices sets this week and we'll see you on the water at Shortline Shores this weekend!

Ohio's famous Buckeye Buoy Tour held their final stop of the year on July 20, the day before Ohio State Championships, at Bees and Skis Lake in Bowling Green, Ohio. The weather provided many unwanted challenges, and many skiers fell on their opening or second pass Friday due to wind, though others were able to fight through the rain and wind difficulties to salvage great scores. Slalom rounds were L sanctioned (US Record Capable) for those who chose that class. It was interesting to see the extra cameras in use.

Carson Warren improved from 3.5 total buoys in round one, to 20 buoys in round two. That significant increase in average lead to him winning the day. Jackson Lanich finished top two, after scoring 2 at 28 off. Casey Warren impressively skied 4 at 34 mph 15 off, which earned her third place. Greg Kuenning clinched fourth by twice skiing into 35 off. David Miller ran into 38 off en route to fifth.

On Saturday evening at the State Championship banquet, Greg Kuenning announced the 2018 Buckeye Buoy Tour season champions. Congrats to Jackson Lanich, who won a new D3 slalom ski for finishing first in the slalom standings. Fellow Boys 2 skier Jack Kuenning was jump and overall champion, with Skylar Rogers winning the trick crown after finishing second at two different BBT stops this year. See more pictures here.

The State Championship started Saturday morning. The weather was kind to the skiers on Saturday, and the rain perfectly evaded our area, and all of slalom was completed on time after all three events of juniors were powered through in the morning. The temperature Sunday warmed up for adult trick and jump, and we had the most sunshine of the three days. The rope swing was popular with the kids all weekend, despite the clouds and wind.

Kyle Dammeyer. Jason Wroblewski, John Gorski, David Miller and Ted Mccolley all got into 38 off.

One of the jump highlights Sunday was John Brannon's first time over the ramp, and he successfully skied away his second attempt, going 30 feet. The longest jump of the weekend was Robbie Daulton, going 101 feet.

Special thanks to John and Elizabeth Gorski for hosting the tournament, and to all of the chief officials who put in so much effort (Larry Downes, Kurt Mechler, Jeanette van Akelijen, Jim McClure, Jeffery Van Treese, and Greg Kuenning).

Due to weather the running order for the State Tournament has been changed to complete all Junior events first (tricks, jump, then slalom). After junior events are completed the remaining slalom divisions will be run.

The tentative running orders for this weekend's Ohio State Tournament are now available here. Please remember that the Junior Trick and Jump will be held Saturday after slalom.

The weather forecast for this weekend is gloomy, so the event order may need to change in order to complete the junior trick and jump events on Saturday. This means that some adult slalom might be moved to Sunday morning. The tournament officials will work hard to stick to the event order, but we just don't know about the weather.

The Buckeye Buoy Tour held their third event of the year at Pleasant Shores in Van Wert. (Remember...#2 was cancelled).

Slalom format wise, skiers were scored against three others in their group, with the highest average of those four skiers getting four points, second getting three points, etc. Skiers that scored four or three points spun the wheel to determine the second round order. Anyone that scored 6 points or higher after two rounds locked in a lane to the finals.

Sam Kuenning finished first in slalom with 3.25 at 17 mph, after getting 1 at 17 mph in the second round. Steady improvement there by Sam kept his scores well above his average.

Mallin Blaxill, a collegiate skier for the University of Cincinnati, finished second in slalom with 1.5 at 30 mph, almost a full pass better than her second round score of 2 at 28 mph. (Mallin was not there for the podium photo.)

Alex Lavin, a Boys 2 skier made a big score improvement of seven buoys between the first and second round. He capped it off with the his best of the day in the finals, a score of 4 at 24 mph. That was enough to secure Alex third place.

Chaz Decker and Jackson Lanich rounded out the top five. Chaz got 2.5 at 34 mph, 32 off. Jackson’s best of the day was 3 buoys at 34 mph, 28 off.

The trick podium of Kayla Herstad, Josie Kuenning, and Jack Kuenning was compiled from 21 trickers. Jack earned it with 1900 points, Josie scored 990, and Kayla 2880 points in the finals to win trick.

Out of 19 jumpers, David Barthelmas went home victorious with the highest handicapped score. He flew 101 feet, which put him ahead of Chris Caldwell and Jack Kuenning, who landed 110 foot and 33 foot jumps respectively.

Other people that jumped over 100 feet include Keri McClure, David Pellegrene, Jon French, Chaz Decker, and Le Rouse.